Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-02-05
PROFESSOR HILGARD ON IRRIGATION
AND DRAINAGE.

In Professor 1tllgaruS pampnlel on
"Alkali Lands, Irrigation and Drainage"
Just issued from the State printing office,
he confines himself almost entirely to the
effect of irrigation upon the alkal and
adobe lands, and the need for correlative
Undertakings. After going over the
ground deliberately and clearly explaining
the constituents of the alkali soils, and of
the irrigation waters of California, he con-
Guided that it is of the highest Importance
to investigate thoroughly not only the
quantity but also the quality of the waters
available for irrigation in the arid regions.
Thus he insists upon the people becoming
thoroughly conyersant with the necessity
of drainage correlative with irrigation, in
order to avoid the conversion of some of
the finest agricultural lands of the San
Joaquin valley into swampy alkali flats.
All the data for intelligent action in the
premises he claims are at hand. The ex-
act condition of things that now exists in
India, he thinks, menaces irrigation in our
southern districts, and therefore in the Or
ganization of irrigation in California he
insists that care be taken that correlative
drainage be provided in the beginning.
Already, he adds, not only has the Reh
plague, which so afflicted India, made its
appearance
tn in It1f
where perviouS Soils ARE traversed by high-laid
bitches these are bordered by the swamp growth
which has completely displaced that OF the dry
plains aud at many points we see the farms OF
early settlers, who, for convenience of bringing
irrigation water, located in the lower ground.
now being oyerrun the waterwhich has been
brought in unnecessary abundance. or through
leaky canals, upon the adjacent higher lands.
When the plains of Fresno, Tulare and Kern
were first settled it was often found, in digging
wells, that no perceptlble moisture existed at
depths from thirty to forty feet below the sur
face. After the region had been irrigated here
and there for several years, the level of moist
ure, and with it the water table, gradually rose
by the leakage through the perVious bottoms
and sides of the bitches so that one-half to one
third of the water previously needed sutliccd
for grain crop and, as the bitches were in
creased in number and extended in length, the
whole country gradually filed up from below,
until now i'll any OF the lower ground-e..g.,
near Fresno-water may be found at from three
TO five feet, and near the bitches frequently at
TO exist, but now the Superabundance OF water
threatens 10 force all the roots of trees aud vines
near TO the surface, and by rendering II I'M
possible for them TO live at tine greater depths III
which they naturally would seek their nOHrish-
ment in such pervous soils, they are confined
to, and have to subsist upon. relatively thin
surface layer, even If no direct injury accrucs
from the contact of water Thus deep soils are
rendered shallow, and whatever of alkali has
accumulated within them during ages is brought
near the surface, and viii, unless forestailed,
hfift pl1C f
forth in the report of the Indian Reh Com
mittee.
It is apparent from his remarks that the
subject needs the closest investigation, and
cool and rational judgment, for any system
of irrigation tobe adopted in California;
Whatever laws regulating irrigation are en-
acted, should simultaneously provide for a
proper collocation and construction of the
bitches canals with respect TO drainage, since
otherwise no one whose land lies lower than
that on which another can bring water viii be
safe from downright ruin. The loose and irreg.-
ular manner in which bitches have been laid
and distributed will have to be rectitied. at
whatever expense may be required, for the pro-
lection of the rights of owners on the lower
levels.
He holds that the facts as nature has
made them should be plainly set before
the people, so that money may not be in
vested in useless undertakings or damage
done which it may be difficult to undo
hereafter There are few rivers, he ex-
plains, in the world of such composition
or natural purity that continued irrigation
without eorrelative undertakings can be
practiced without in the end causing an
LOT Of
the soil. In India this evil has become
painfully apparent, and TO such an ex-
tent that, after the expenditure of enor-
nous sums for bringing water upon the
fields, the Government now finds itself
face to face with the costly problem of its
economical removal, by drainage, so as to
relieve the soil of the accumulated alkali,
which has rendered it unfit for cultivation.
Early attention to this matter, with such
foresight as will prevent the occurrence of
similar difficulties, cannot be to earnestly
recommended to all interested in land
needing irrigation, from the Pacific coast
to Colorado and Kansas"
The warning of Professor Hilgard con-
corning the swapping" of land and the
q rise of alkalip will scarcely be I'M
needed He makes the fact too prominent
to be avoided that in the irrigated
districts of Kern and Tulare valleys
the alkali is continually extend
ing its area and seriously damaging the
crops. His episramnatic statement is full
of meaning that the ''hush up" policy
must not be countenanced, but that "now,
when the necessity for the establishment
of some definite system of irrigation has
become too obvious to be longer put aside,